RECOVERING from recent injury and without lifting her racket, Miami Open women’s singles semifinalist Alex Eala attained another milestone yesterday, rising two notches to No. 73 in the latest Women’s Tennis Association world rankings.
This is the highest that any Filipina netter has reached in the Open era since the WTA, the women’s world body for pro tennis, began coming out with the ratings in November 1975.
Former American star Chris Evert, an 18-time Grand Slam champion, was ranked as the first world No. 1.
Eala will continue her assault on the rankings when the clay court season begins with the Oeria Ladies Open, a WTA 125 tournament, set April 14 to 20 in Oerias, Portugal, according to the pretty southpaw during a podcast interview over the weekend.
This will be followed by the WTA 1000 Mutua Madrid Open from April 22 to May 4 in Madrid, Spain, added the athlete during the interview on the Power and Play program of his uncle, former PBA commissioner and PSC chairman Noli Eala.
A most interested spectator who will likely watch Eala play is five-time Madrid Open champion and clay court tennis great Rafael Nadal, one of the supporters of the netter, who graduated as a scholar of the Rafa Nadal academy in Mallorca, Spain.
As to her fitness, she disclosed that, “I’m happy to say that I’m perfectly healthy. I did have a bad fall in the second set against Pegula and I guess I am really lucky that it wasn’t (that bad])” of her stumble early in the second set of her 6-7 (3-7), 7-5, 3-6 semis lost to American No. 4 Jessica Pegula.
“Those types of falls are really the ones that get you trauma injuries. But I’m lucky I was able to play the match and continue training. I had a few days for it to recover, but I’m back on court fully normal and everything is fine,” said Eala, smiling.
Her breakthrough semifinals stint at the Miami Open, which earned her a hefty paycheck of $332,160 (roughly P19.051 million) and 390 WTA points, paved the way for her meteoric rise in the rankings, becoming the sport’s latest darling not only to Filipinos but global fans as well.
Her impressive triumphs over three Grand Slam champions – former French Open queen Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia (No. 25), reigning Australian Open title holder Madison Keys (No. 5), and four-time French Open champ Iga Swiatek of Poland (No. 2) – set her up as the next player to watch.
